Practical Work on Self [ペーパーバック]

You used to have to seek, seek, seek, to find any concrete answers about work on self or practical aspects of the Fourth Way. You'd have to make an impossibly huge donation, or climb an unclimbable mountain, or join an organization with rigorously stringent membership qualifications -- just in order to get into a position to maybe possibly ask someone -- if they even knew -- for an exercise to "work on self." Or, if you were able to find a book, then you'd probably have to pass a qualifying test to be allowed to read it.

Now, with no questions asked, with no prerequisite donation or mountain-climbing experience, you can order -- and even get FedEx delivery on -- from amazon.com -- your own private, paperback technical manual of what insiders know to be "The Big 24" exercises, E.J. Gold's Practical Work on Self. (A very fine tool, IMHO :-). )

Before the publication of this book, "the Big 24" exercises were only available in restricted publications and in workshops.

E.J. Gold is bold. In Practical Work on Self, he radically lays out real-life exercises to leverage your attention to be able to observe that elusive human biological machine -- the one, Gold says, that is responsible for keeping us from the waking state of consciousness -- and, if all goes well, also the one that eventually becomes our partner in transformation.

And something does happen. Using the 24 exercises, I have confronted myself in various ways...and for me, simply seeing myself, is a beautiful thing...not in the artistic sense, but in the mystery of self...I am on the surface a complicated & complex human...but once I see past the overly contrived & elaborate personality...past the fear of self discovery...reality becomes a little more real.

This book is not for the hobbiests...meaning, it actually gives you something to do, not just something to think about...

I use this text along with THE HUMAN BIOLOGICAL MACHINE in an on-line self-awareness/transformation workshop. I can only give this book my higest recommendation...working actively with it for 5 years has made "knowing thy self" seem plausible and real.

It outlines some strategies for the ever challenging project of how to awaken the machine. The exercise are practical and inspiring. Well, okay, some of them are a less than obvious, but what fun would it be without having to work for it a little bit?

The exercises can be viewed as a course, so you can follow an organized structure. I like to do one exercise every week. Then start all over again. It is even better the third and fourth time around.

A must for anyone serious about developing attention and presence.